LinkedIn Marketing Strategy Blog

Why Starting a LinkedIn Group Will Change Your Business Forever

I might be the first person to have made this bold statement: Starting your own LinkedIn group is the single greatest marketing tactic that you have at your disposal.

And I do not mean to say greatest tactic within LinkedIn. I’m referring to the entire spectrum of possible marketing activities.

Yes, even better than having your logo printed on coffee mugs and sponsoring the local badminton team.

Here’s the problem you face. How do you design a cost-effective marketing campaign that keeps your name in front of prospects on a consistent and persistent basis?

It is the problem that has dogged business people for years and prevented most businesses from achieving sustainable, predictable revenue.

Start Your Own LinkedIn Group

One way to confront and solve this riddle is by starting and growing your own LinkedIn group.

I know nothing else that addresses this basic business problem in such a complete, integrated, holistic manner.

Marketers love to talk about the number of “touches” you have to make with a prospect before closing on a sale. I’ve heard 7 touches, 30 touches, and probably every other number in between.

I don’t know who made those numbers up. But I do know that the concept is true.

Marketing requires consistency and persistency.

Connecting with somebody or shaking hands once does not lead to a sale. You must have a systematic marketing process for staying in front of this person on a regular basis.

Here’s how LinkedIn groups allow you to achieve these things.

Forget 7 Touches, How About 365 Touches Per Year

LinkedIn Groups offer a tremendous and powerful platform to your business. Done right, you can keep your name in front of your prospects on a daily basis.

Is there another way to achieve this without being seen as a spammer or way too “in your face?” Here’s how it works.

Daily Group Activity Digests

When somebody joins your group, they have the ability to adjust their settings to receive a digest of activity on a daily or weekly basis. They can also elect to receive nothing.
We continue to find that most people on LinkedIn do not bother with adjusting these settings at all. As such, they will receive a digest of your group activity in their email inbox every single day of the year.

It is simply up to you to make sure that you’re keeping your group regularly updated with great, valuable content. Your prospects will keep opening those emails, and they’ll keep seeing your name.

After seeing your name every day, who do you think these prospects will think of when they are in the market for your services?

Promotion of Your Business Through Content

With all of our clients, we insist that groups be built as communities which add value. If you don’t do it that way, the group will fail. LinkedIn groups that are nothing but a marketing message for the group owner rarely succeed in the long term.

Yet it still remains a fact that you are building a group for the primary reason of promoting your business.

So how you do balance promotion with community building and value?

With valuable, branded content that your prospects will view as a real resource.

This kind of content typically includes:

Articles (Blogs)

White Papers

Case Studies

How-to Videos

Free Reports

Webinars

Infographics

When you balance the promotion of other people’s content with your content, people will stay extremely engaged in your group. We usually recommend a 20/1 ratio. For every twenty posts/discussions in your group, it’s safe to add one piece of content that’s yours.

Done right, with balance, people will devour everything you promote.

Special Targeted Messages to All Group Members

LinkedIn group owners have the ability to send “Announcements” to all group members, up to once per week. The power of this is ridiculous.

Have an extremely valuable piece of content, a webinar, or some other event that you want to promote? Send the message to the entire group, and watch your content take off.

Let’s look at webinars, for example. Many people struggle to get much attendance on a webinar, because they do not have an interested list with which to promote it.

If you actively promote and cultivate your LinkedIn group, within 6 months your webinars and branded content will have plenty of eyeballs on them.

Leadership and Networking Opportunities

Running a LinkedIn group has the same effect as being the founder or manager of a massive local networking group.

For one, you are seen as a true leader. Somebody who is making things happen and building a valuable community. Think there is some benefit to that? Absolutely, a huge benefit.

On top of that, the networking opportunities that exist within LinkedIn groups is massive.

As the owner of the group, try reaching out to new members with a personal message. I guarantee that you will find it to be a ridiculously effective strategy for building new relationships and positioning yourself for big long-term returns.

Build a Community Around Your Brand and Reinforce Your Image

You have an image that you want your personal or company brand to be perceived as, right? How well are you doing to keep this image consistent?

Within a LinkedIn group, your professional identity is reinforced over and over, in whatever way you decide.

Want to be known as the straight laced professional type? Your group should be a no frills, serious forum for discussion of business issues.

Is your company’s image more of a tongue-in-cheek personality? Keep the group light, and inject this personality into your messages.

It’s all about consistent, daily reinforcement of your brand.

Will You Actually Do It?

Most people are floored when they realize what these LinkedIn groups are capable of. And then most do nothing about it. I encourage you to be one of the people that acts bold and moves forward.

If done properly, you will have built a tremendous “permission asset” that will generate big time income for years to come. For most people I know, that would change their business (and life) forever.

If you’re interested in even more resources on how to start and grow a massively successful LinkedIn group, please subscribe to our site via email, and visit LinkedUniversity.com for more training and resources.

Very interesting article. We are a new Christian clothing brand, and like any new business with limited budgets for marketing. Interestingly enough, we hadn’t considered LinkedIn for marketing yet (we’re on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest so far We’ll be looking at LinkedIn more closely. Thanks for the article and for following on Twitter!